montrelblundell

A respected scientist says he may have made controversial "acid bath" STAP stem cells--but via strenuous trituration (manipulation with a pipette) and NOT via acid. Other scientists are rushing to try to repeat this--even as two images in the controversial Harvard/Riken paper have been dubbed falsified. The approach is considered important enough that Riken plans to try to repeat the work for a year, despite the falsified images. The cells represent a third kind of pluripotential stem cell. http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/articles/2014/04/scientist-said-he-may-have-made-stap-cells%E2%80%94just-riken-called-fraud

Several groups have now repeated the feat of the Japanese group working at the insitute headed by Nobel Prize winning stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka. That is, they have created functioning oocytes from adult female mouse cells. The groups are now trying to repeat the feat with monkey and human cells. The below story contains links to the academic papers in Nature Protocols, and Nature: link removed

An incredibly interesting PNAS study outlines the physical evolution of creative thought processes. The study, called "Network Structure and the Dynamics of the Mental Workspace" is at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/09/13/1311149110 A news story outlining the reactions of members of the neuroscience community is at Bioscience Technology: link removed